


Gentle Song (Yasashii Uta)

by MidoriKurenaiYume



Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mythology, Dialogue, Drama, F/M, Gods, Kissing, slight romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2020-01-14 13:21:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18477073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidoriKurenaiYume/pseuds/MidoriKurenaiYume
Summary: Mythology AU.Arturia is one of the Hunters of Artemis. Gilgamesh is a primordial force who starts observing her.





	1. Feeling happy is sometimes difficult

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely loved Greek mythology as a child and I've always wanted to write something about it ;) so Arturia is human here, while Gilgamesh is not one of the Olympian gods but probably one of the children of Uranus and Gaia, likely the most powerful - and bored - one :P
> 
> NOTE: though not indispensable, some knowledge about the Greek myths is necessary to understand all the references in this story. As you may know, most myths have several versions; I chose the ones that I thought fit this story better and then adapted them for this fic.
> 
> Title: from a Kalafina song, part of the album 'Winter Acoustic ~ Kalafina with strings' ;) the chapters' titles are lyrics from the song, translated by the canta-per-me forum :))

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..oOo..

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Gilgamesh’s eyes travelled listlessly over the vast expanse of earth he could see from his position in the skies, not lingering on any human he occasionally spotted. After the thorough perusal, he was forced to be satisfied by merely concluding that what he had already been thinking for centuries was true.

Being an otherworldly creature had its perks, but it was also inexpressibly _tedious_.

As his gaze moved away from the cities populated by humans and moved towards the forests, a slight grin appeared on his lips and his eyes were suddenly filled with a more animated light. Thankfully – at least for his mental sanity – some things still managed to catch his attention. Or rather, some people.

Or to be more specific, just one person.

At first, observing her had been simply amusing. He had been deeply entertained by witnessing her odd dedication to her tasks, which had made him decide to invest some more of his limitless time in keeping a closer eye on her. He had kept at it for a while out of boredom, at least until he had realized that the commitment he saw, in her every behaviour, was actually _genuine_.

Contrary to other humans, she was neither fickle nor fake, and most of what she did – while expected of an honourable person – couldn’t help being impressive. It was unusual and rather startling, especially since she wasn’t a normal human to begin with, but she was one of the Hunters of Artemis.

Gilgamesh had never had much to do with the Virgin Goddess, as he found most – if not all – gods from Olympus to be nothing but pompous fools too wrapped up in contemplating their own importance and satisfying their whims to be anything more than useless pawns _and_ obstacles in the designs of Fate. As a primordial force, Gilgamesh was completely indifferent to their existence, even though he did admittedly feel some disdain when they managed – not too infrequently – to irritate him. He kept away from them, mostly because they did not interest him, and he only put himself in their path when he felt like forcing them to confront their hopeless hypocrisy.

The Goddess Artemis had however never managed to irritate him too much with her hunting habits, because he was entertained by her cold-blooded precision and her firmly unwavering purpose in never bending her ideals. He _did_ find it ridiculous for her to choose to remain a virgin her whole life, even though he recognized it was her own choice and therefore didn’t interfere; what he found absolutely absurd was the fact that she demanded the same from her followers. While he might have found it mildly exciting to test those girls’ steadiness in remaining true to their vows, he would never lower himself to such an activity, as he had already witnessed Zeus at work on it, too many times for him to remember.

The Father of the Gods, Zeus, had not obtained his title just because he had saved his brothers and sisters from their father Kronos, overthrown him and began the era of the Olympians, but also because most gods and _a lot_ of other creatures – humans, demigods, monsters – were his _actual_ children. He didn’t just seek pleasure – which, in Gilgamesh’s view, was perfectly legitimate with a consenting lover or occasionally alone – he sought to impregnate each and every one of his partners, never taking responsibility for the problems and often the misery he thrust upon them.

One of the countless examples many gods – and Gilgamesh as well – had witnessed was that of Callisto.

The girl had been one of Artemis’s most loyal Hunters, but she had been unlucky enough to be very pretty, so pretty that Zeus had immediately begun to lust after her. Knowing that her loyalty would never change and that he couldn’t seduce her, he had transformed into Artemis to convince her to bathe naked alone with him. Since it was something not too uncommon for the Hunters to do, it had allowed him to deceive and then take advantage of her.

Callisto had felt ashamed and distraught, not daring tell anyone what had happened, until a few months later, when bathing in another river, Artemis had noticed her pregnant belly. The Goddess had been furious and stripped her of her Huntress’s title immediately, abandoning her in the forest, where Hera, Zeus’s wife, had been able to unleash her jealousy and rage on her, transforming her into a bear that was later killed by her own child. Only then did Zeus briefly interfere, deciding to turn both Callisto and her son into constellations.

While the story itself had provided some modicum of entertainment during his otherwise quite monotonous scrutiny of the human world, Gilgamesh had not appreciated Zeus’s role in countless similar events that involved innocent humans. Alcmene, Hercules’s mother, was another example of a human woman who had been taken advantage of by Zeus’s libertine deceptions: he had disguised himself as her loving husband, inducing the unsuspecting Alcmene to sleep with him and bear him a child. Hera had then poured her anger about her husband’s infidelities onto the child himself, making his life a living hell and forcing the infamous twelve labours on him.

Gilgamesh disliked that specific part of those events. He was in favour of administering punishments when there were wrongdoings under his rule or disobedience of his orders, which was why he could for example grudgingly respect Artemis’s inflexibility in her banishment of Callisto; at the same time, he had to recognize that the girl had been a completely innocent victim of Zeus’s insatiable lust. That was the reason why he felt no sympathy at all for the Father of the Gods – and had every intention of keeping him far, far away from the Huntress who had caught _his own_ attention.

His interest in her had come by so suddenly that recognizing it was still a source of amusement for him. He had never cared to observe Artemis’s Hunters before, as their vow of chastity bored him and they were usually rather dull women, extremely full of their own importance. Their efficiency in hunting could be admired, but it was still overall boring.

There were many Hunters who were good-looking, some even beautiful, but the one who had caught his attention was somewhat beyond that. She didn’t possess the conventional kind of beauty, the one of a queen dressed in finery, smiling indulgently while sitting on her decorated and meaningless throne; she had the fiery beauty of a warrior, holding her sword, her dagger and her bow and arrow, fighting seriously and earnestly in all her battles. Battles of any kind, big or small, important or trivial. She went through every trial without a smile, without any sultry, charming glances that so many – men and women alike – considered the winning skill in the art of seduction.

In fact, she was a complete novice in that department. If she had had to play the role of an attractive concubine or entertainer, she would have failed miserably; it was therefore uncommonly peculiar, Gilgamesh had surprised himself thinking, that she had managed to capture his attention not only without even trying, but also by being so lacking in the skillset of those that were considered the traditional enticements.

But perhaps, he was forced to recognize, her strangeness was what made her so appealing in the first place.

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.o.

..oOo..

.o.

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He had first approached her when she had been separated from the other Hunters during one of their relaxed games of fake hunting. Every fortnight, the Hunters went out on their own, without their usual weapons or their dogs in order to look for wild animals, track them down, and capture them – without killing them – before releasing them again.

To Gilgamesh, this seemed a perfectly useless exercise, but he had noticed that it appeared to be an important personal challenge for the Hunters and since it would make sure the woman he intended to meet was going to be alone for the whole night, he felt completely entitled to take advantage of it.

He had purposefully chosen a small grove that couldn’t be reached by moonlight, knowing that it would prevent Artemis’s powers to see or sense them.

Of course she did not react with pleasure when he came to her in the darkness of the secluded place; however, he was pleasantly surprised to find out that, even though she was understandably on her guard, she wasn’t filled with her Goddess’s prejudice towards male beings.

He was mildly disappointed when she did not recognize him – though he could see that she tried to make several hypotheses in her mind – but he had to remind himself of her status. She was a human woman turned Huntress who didn’t even know about each of the Olympian gods, much less about all the immensely powerful forces that had permeated the universe long before those fools had decided to take over, in spite of the fact that they had no real impact on the course of Fate.

The fact that she wasn’t knowledgeable about his identity did not mean that she was completely naïve, because she could sense his power even as he remained half-hidden from her in the darkness. Their position gave him the chance to study every single movement of her body and her every reaction, an opportunity he wasn’t going to pass up.

It took her a very short while to understand that she was in a position of disadvantage, because whoever he was, he could clearly overpower her, and perhaps even the Goddess herself wouldn’t have been able to oppose him. His eyes never left her, taking in every change in her expression that gave away her rapid conclusions, and he could not help feeling his admiration for her increase when not even once, during that development, did a shiver of fear appear on her face.

After realizing that he did not seem to want to attack her – at least not right away – she addressed him first, questioning his presence and his reasons for seeking her out, alone and away from everyone else. It was obvious that she thought that he either meant to kill her – something that didn’t frighten her – or he wanted to use her to send a message to the Goddess. It had after all taken her only a few seconds to notice that the grove wasn’t touched by moonlight.

He had been prepared to face her questions, and his teeth flashed in the darkness when he smiled, allowing him to see a flicker of wariness in her grave green eyes, which made him realize that he was making a very sinister impression on her. However, she squared her shoulders resolutely, her hunting attire shifting slightly, drawing his attention to her covered skin.

He chuckled, which made the Huntress tense and, once again, she decided to question him bluntly.

“You will not be successful, if your intention is to kidnap me to manipulate the Goddess–”

His second chuckle interrupted her, and he decided to grant her a reassurance.

“I have no interest in that.” He waited a second before continuing, “Rather than _wanting_ something from you, I am here to _tell_ you something.”

It was clear that she was bewildered by his comment, even though the effort she made to keep her expression inscrutable was remarkable.

“I intend to give you an information,” he specified slowly, his voice not bothering to hide his amusement now as it became lower. “What will become of it is entirely up to you.”

She considered this, obviously having chosen to believe him for the time being, and he was favourably impressed when her eyes narrowed at him.

“Is this your idea of testing me? To decide my value or my suitability for whatever project you have in mind for the future? Find another pawn for your plans.”

Her accusations were interesting and not entirely far-fetched, especially considering the human society where she had grown up, but they were unfortunately not completely accurate either.

“I need no pawns.” His amusement and confidence dripped from his every word, and it made her go rigid, as it implied that his power was even greater than she had assumed. “I will indeed find out what you do with the information I give you,” he did not bother telling her that he was going to follow her actions the same way he had kept observing her for a few years now, “but it does not _matter_ to me what you do with it. It’s after all not something about you, but about other humans, the species you belonged to before pledging yourself to the Moon Goddess.”

This was enough to make her now give him her full attention, and he relayed his information before flashing his teeth in a grin a second time and then disappearing from her sight, going back to observing her from the heavens.

She remained in the grove for some more time before finally leaving, examining her surroundings cautiously as she started running to find her fellow Hunters again. While he wasn’t entirely surprised, he was oddly thrilled when he saw that she didn’t disclose their meeting to the Goddess. He hadn’t counted on it, but it certainly made it easier for him to remain undisturbed in his fixation on her.

As he kept watching her the following days, observing how she slowly decided what to do with the information he had given her, he could not help feeling strangely more alive than he had felt in many, many centuries.

No matter what her final decision would be, he now knew that he was going to meet her again.

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.o.

..oOo..

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	2. For the sake of the song I'll sing tomorrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a small clarification: upon becoming a Hunter of Artemis, every woman becomes 'immortal' in the sense that she stops aging, not that she's immune to death :/

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Arturia had finished cleaning her weapons carefully but, instead of setting them next to herself and finding a comfortable position to sleep in, she took them with her as she went for a nightly stroll on her own. It had long been a habit of hers; she had always enjoyed it, but it had recently become slightly more important than what the Goddess thought.

The other Hunters were exhausted, and while she was tired as well, it wasn’t enough to make her forgo her late exploration of the forest. They had been part of an extremely exciting but difficult hunt earlier in the day, having conquered a particularly vicious boar and a giant bear at the same time. The Goddess usually made hunting a sport, relishing the challenge of taking down gifted opponents, but sometimes she focused on hunting dangerous animals, beasts that were nothing but killing machines and therefore posed a concrete danger to human villages.

Arturia had a special predilection for those expeditions. As she was one of the Goddess’s favourites, it had not been surprising that when Arturia had suggested – with the right amount of respect – this specific one, Artemis had agreed to it. It had been a challenging one, but that only made its success a more satisfying accomplishment, one all the Hunters revelled in and could be proud of.

What bothered Arturia was the fact that, even though she was the one who had brought it to the Goddess’s attention and was therefore responsible for steering the hunt in the beasts’ direction, she wasn’t actually the one responsible for _noticing_ the serious threat those two wild animals had been posing to humans.

The information had not come from her personal observation, but it had reached her through a god who had taken some sort of interest in her, a god she had first met in a slightly isolated grove, deep inside the forest, away from her sisters and from the Goddess.

The same grove to which her steps were headed right now.

In spite of the fact that she had already gone to meet him several times, she knew it was unwise to keep going back to see the mysterious god – or creature, as she had to remind herself that she didn’t know whether or not he was _truly_ a god – again, especially since she didn’t even know his identity.

She had attempted, without success, to find out who he was. She was aware of his immense powers, since they were so massive that she had felt their strength by just being close to him, even by only using her senses as a Huntress. She had already concluded that he couldn’t be either Zeus or Poseidon, who were the most powerful Olympians – Athena was stronger, but the one visiting her was unquestionably male – since they were notorious playboys and their approach would have definitely been more lecherous. He wasn’t Hades either, as his powers didn’t seem to be related to death, and he was too powerful to be anyone else of the Olympians.

As she had still been trying to figure out his identity, she had taken to observing him closely every time she saw him. Even though they always met in the dark, she had been extremely surprised, upon their third encounter, to accidently find out that his hair was blond. She had associated him with darkness until that point, and the discovery had made her suddenly ask him if he was Helios, the primordial force of the sun.

The blunt question had amused him, and he had simply decided to tell her that he was enjoying her attempts even though she hadn’t guessed correctly, but it had confirmed to her that, whatever he was, he was more ancient than the Olympians. He had however denied being a Titan, and once she had tried to ask more, he had stopped her questions by asking back whether it was something she truly needed to know.

She had hesitated only one second to think about her reply before telling him that it was true that she had no _need_ for such a thing, but it was indeed something she would have _liked_ to find out. That exchange had been what had prompted him to give her a name to call him with, Gilgamesh, making it clear that it wasn’t however to be divulged to others.

As she walked further away from her sisters, Arturia managed to suppress the instinctual part of her that wanted to turn around and check that no one was following her.

Meeting a mysterious supernatural entity wasn’t something that Artemis had forbidden, as the Hunters’ vows swore Arturia to loyalty and chastity and so far she had never felt even the remotest desire to go against them. She was however meeting an unknown _male_ deity in the middle of the night, in secret, and it was doubtless that the Goddess would be displeased to say the least if she ever found out; Artemis would have every right to even demand her life if she so much as _thought_ that Arturia was not keeping her oaths.

The Moon Goddess wasn’t known to be a forgiving creature, and she was patient only when it came to stalking and hunting down a prey; if one of her favourite Hunters gave her reason to believe she had broken her trust, she would not listen to any explanations nor would she grant mercy, under any circumstances.

Perhaps that was however part of whatever prompted Arturia to stick to her decision to go to the darkest areas of the forest anyway. She did nothing more than _talk_ with the enigmatic man she knew was a powerful being, and even though what she did wasn’t wrong, it was still extremely dangerous – yet it somehow managed to draw her in and, for some reason, kept making her come back.

She could not and would not admit it, but the short conversations with the mysterious Gilgamesh managed to linger in her mind for days, even – or especially – when they made her uncomfortable, which was something that to her chagrin tended to happen rather often.

Whenever the more righteous part of her conscience started to raise objections in her mind, Arturia always reminded herself that she _had_ a reasonable excuse to keep meeting him. Every time she saw him, he dropped a few hints about a matter or another that was ailing humans, seemingly knowing perfectly well that it would make her want to intervene.

And Arturia knew that, no matter how intriguing and unhealthily fascinating his presence could be, if he stopped giving her valuable information, she would stop meeting him as well. She may be doing something extremely risky and close to forbidden, but she wouldn’t have kept doing it simply because conversations with him were interesting if there wasn’t something more concretely useful that came out of them.

The unknown male entity seemed to be aware of this, since he always provided some valuable information that would persuade her to come back. Arturia had to admit that he was clever: he knew exactly what to say to make sure she didn’t stop coming. She saw it and realized it, yet she kept playing right into his hands and did indeed come back for another encounter.

Every single time she did so – even if she came at different hours of the night – he was _always_ there, waiting for her.

It wasn’t difficult to reach the conclusion that he _wanted_ her to come back.

At first, she had believed that he had some ulterior motive, and had then guessed that he meant to approach Artemis through her or even somehow harm the Goddess by using her. However, that hypothesis had soon had to be discarded, because she was extremely careful in never saying anything about the Goddess, not even by accident, and he didn’t seem to be interested in talking about her either. All he seemed to want was to protract their conversations as much as possible, sometimes by talking about entirely random subjects.

On a couple of occasions, using the blackness of the night to his advantage, he had attempted to touch her arms and shoulders; but she was an accomplished hunter, used to moving silently in the forest and hearing every little sound, and had skilfully avoided any physical contact whenever he reached for her. Moving silently seemed to be easy for him, but it clearly wasn’t something he was used to do, because she was able to follow his movements even in the complete darkness and subsequently keep a suitable distance between them.

She may like, even enjoy, the conversations with this being, but that did not mean that she would allow him to come any closer to her.

During their encounters, she often found herself having to control the desire to thank him for the information he provided her, and she did so because she had a strong feeling that he wasn’t doing it for altruistic purposes at all – but just with the precise intention to have a valid excuse to meet her.

If she wasn’t mistaken in such an assumption, it meant that he had something in mind. If he didn’t intend to hurt the Goddess or her fellow Hunters, he certainly wanted something from her, even though finding out what that could be was definitely going to be difficult.

While he obviously felt pleasure and amusement in her presence, she didn’t believe for one second that those occasional nocturnal conversation were simply ‘because he was bored’, as he had told her himself when she had eventually questioned his motives, bluntly and directly. If only she could figure out _what it was_ that he wanted, she would have been able to tread on less uncertain ground and not be at a disadvantage, as she felt she was doing at the moment.

Their conversations were the only clue she had to try to understand his purpose, but they offered little to no help, because they included an ample variety of subjects and usually jumped from one to the other without any logical flow. He didn’t insist on anything in particular, nor did she, which meant that they touched on many different things without lingering on any of them.

They had once even brought up the subject of sexual intercourse, which was of course forbidden for all Hunters, and while he had made it obvious that he didn’t agree with the idea of chastity, he had surprised her by not questioning her resolution in keeping her vows. In spite of his occasional touches, he had not attempted to ‘seduce’ her or, as Artemis and other Hunters had warned her back when she had decided to join them, ‘induce her into temptation’ either.

Tonight, she was however determined to thank him openly for the information he had given her. He certainly had his ulterior motives, but he had told her something important that had not only allowed them to help distressed cities terrorized by the two wild monsters, but also offered the Hunters – and the Goddess herself – a hunt worthy of its name.

She immediately felt his presence once she reached a more secluded part of the forest, and she slowly turned to face him, knowing that he was going to come closer to her once he was certain that no moonlight was shining on them. Artemis was the Moon Goddess, and even though she was rather indifferent about what took place in the human world under her watch, she could still see and know what happened if the moonlight touched them.

Arturia had just opened her mouth to thank him, but she didn’t manage to go past the first few words before he interrupted her, waving her thanks away. While clearly amused by her attempt, he wasn’t interested in hearing it, and she was reluctantly forced to desist from her purpose.

Their conversation proceeded like it always did, a normal exchange of random questions, which each of them determined how to answer depending on the subject, followed by a string of observations based on everything and nothing.

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.o.

..oOo..

.o.

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Eventually, she did ask him if his intention was to ultimately kidnap her or take advantage of her connection to the Goddess.

And for the first time, he gave her a direct answer.

“I have no intention of doing anything like that,” he said, his tone casual and even slightly bored. “I know you would not thrive if I were to take you away, and if you are not yourself, you would be just an empty shell – one that wouldn’t interest me.”

He turned to face her more fully, and even in the darkness, his eyes glinted. “All I will do is keep seeing you.”

She studied everything she could see of him in the darkness, standing in front of her as usual – because they never sat down – and she eventually replied calmly, “You are a liar.”

He was visibly surprised and an almost imperceptible tensing of his body betrayed his rage at such an accusation, but she wasn’t finished.

“You are clearly not one to be moderate or considerate in what you want, which means that there is no chance of you being satisfied with just that.”

He seemed to contemplate her instead of giving an answer, and she decided to continue.

“What you will do is ask small, innocent things of me at first, masking your requests as something pure and simple, but you will progressively and greedily ask for more, until I’m completely trapped in the web you’re slowly weaving around me.”

After the silence between them lasted a full minute, he remarked slowly, “My, this is certainly an evening full of surprises. A human who talks back to me with such decisiveness.”

At hearing this, her head snapped up and she stared at him, belatedly noticing that they were much closer now.

“I’m no longer fully human,” she reminded him. “I’m an immortal Huntress now, and I will remain so until I die, because I can only die in battle.”

“Or if you displease your precious Goddess,” he pointed out, and even though she couldn’t see much in the dark, for some reason she knew with certainty that he was staring at her lips.

Controlling her confused emotions when she realized how close he was to her, Arturia decided to wait until she met his gaze again.

Once those glinting, mysterious reddish eyes were back to bore into her own, she repeated firmly, “I will only die in battle.”

He leaned closer, and once again, unable to find an explanation for it, she didn’t move away.

“Will you?” She could feel his breath on her cheeks, and she knew that his mouth was directly in front of hers.

“I will not break my vows,” she reiterated, and she was pleased to hear her tone still be completely steady, even though she was now almost whispering.

“I’m not asking you to.” His voice was equally low, a velvety whisper to match her own. “Nor will I make you.” His lips touched her cheek, brushing against her skin just barely. “And this will _not_ break your vows.”

She had sworn allegiance to a Goddess to whom she had devoted her life, and it was true that what she was doing wasn’t breaking any of her promises.

Arturia’s hands reached forward, finding Gilgamesh’s face, and in the darkness she leaned into him, pressing her lips against his firmly.

She had vowed to live and always be together with Artemis, the implacable Huntress, the cold Goddess of the Moon that thrived at night. But the kiss she shared with the mysterious, ancestral god was soft, warm, full of feeling, not unlike the rising sun, not unlike the beginning of the day, not unlike a sudden dawn that slowly filled the dark skies with its light.

It was chaste yet powerful at the same time. It was undemanding, yet genuine. It was otherworldly, yet truer than what her human experiences had so far taught her throughout her whole life.

When she pulled back, it took Arturia several moments to realize that she was smiling.

It took Gilgamesh much less time to notice. He had never seen her smile before; in fact, he had suspected she was incapable of it, but he had now proof of the opposite. It was late at night and they were in a very dark forest, but when he saw her smile, he could have sworn that what little was visible of the sky seemed to become brighter.

He wanted to reach out and touch her face, but he knew that she wouldn’t have accepted it, therefore he reluctantly refrained from doing so. He stared at her very intently, perfectly aware of the fact that she could feel his eyes on her.

“I will not betray the Goddess, nor will I betray my vows,” she told him after several moments of silence, once she was certain she had regained enough composure to control her voice. “If you can’t respect these terms, then I have nothing else to say to you, nor do I intend to see you again.”

They both understood perfectly what she wasn’t saying and left implied. His visits had been welcome to her not just because of their talks, but also because of the information he gave her, as it was something that gave her purpose. They both knew that she wasn’t like the Goddess, for she didn’t enjoy hunting as a leisure activity, but only when she had a clear purpose in it. She felt alive when hunting, but only when she knew that it was for a good cause, when she knew it was useful.

“However,” she continued boldly, “if you can accept, or respect, or at least _acknowledge_ my beliefs and my vows, then I’m not against meeting you again, because our odd conversations are not cause of grief for me.” Almost as an afterthought, she added, “And only as long as it involves no more physical contact of any kind.”

His amusement was palpable, and while he didn’t come any closer, he didn’t step back either.

“Be more specific about what you mean regarding our ‘odd conversations’,” he challenged her.

Her pride was a strong opponent to overcome, but she managed to, albeit with some difficulty.

“If these conditions are respected, then I’m not against meeting you – because I like talking with you.”

Her admission made his expression change in the darkness, and she could have sworn that he was smirking.

“And you like _me_ too.”

Arturia did not deny it, and instead replied calmly, “As you like me.”

It was clear that his smirk had just widened, and he nodded at her before taking a few steps back.

When he spoke, his tone was more formal, more impersonal.

“Many powers of mine are useful,” he began deliberately. “But among them, there are always some I curse, and none is more sickening than the ability to foresee the future.” He looked at her directly. “You won’t live forever.”

The announcement was light, but his tone held traces of regret.

“You still have several years, but you will die – in battle, as you so clearly wish,” he added nonchalantly when he saw the strange look on her face. “And I will not allow you to become a constellation. Once in the Underworld, however, you will find your rightful place in the Isles of the Blessed, where meeting you is going to be rather difficult, if not completely impossible.”

He contemplated her again for a couple of seconds, before smiling slightly – and this time, she was able to _see_ his smile.

“I will enjoy your company while it’s possible,” he declared decisively. “I can’t keep away from someone so precious.”

She would have felt embarrassed by her slight blush, had she not already swallowed her pride earlier.

He still had something to say though. “And since you now know that it doesn’t break your vows, I will make sure to convince you to share at least one more kiss with me.”

The shadow of a second smile crossed Arturia’s face this time. A challenge was a challenge, and she was not going to back away from it.

“You may try,” she allowed, and a mutual grin sealed their unusual promise.

A promise that, in spite of what they may claim, was definitely not going to be the last one they exchanged.

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.o.

..oOo..

.o.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case you're wondering about their destiny, once Arturia dies Gilgamesh is definitely going to move to the Underworld. He hates the place, but he hates being without her even more. You try tell Hades to keep him out – there’ll be no way :P
> 
> Thank you so much for reading this fic ;))  
> (I'm [here](https://agilartlogbook.tumblr.com/) on tumblr on a joint account with my friend Christy)


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